The heat is (still) on

By ANNE GIBSON

The latest suburban breakdown of Auckland house sales identifies the top suburbs and the rise in the city's fortunes, where the median price has shot up from $259,000 in July to $264,000 in August.

Median prices regularly fell in Auckland until about 18 months ago, but now hikes of $5000 in just four weeks are nothing out of the ordinary in what some fear may be an over-heated market.

The Weekend Herald today introduces a new Auckland suburban and regional real estate guide so readers can get a clear idea about house prices in their suburbs.

The median sale and list price gives the middle figure of all the sales and listings in one month, picking the central point to average out the highs and lows.

The Real Estate Institute this week issued the detailed breakdown of movement in Auckland in its monthly publication Housing Facts, which showed that $921,552,281 worth of Auckland property was sold in August.

It takes less than a month to sell an Auckland house, but longer in Wellington and Christchurch.

In August, 8036 homes changed hands nationally, up from the 6976 in the same month last year. Real Estate Institute national president Graeme Woodley attributed sales growth to confidence in property as an investment and stability in the mortgage sector.

Stable and relatively low interest rates, a thriving economy, migration, the America's Cup and the arrival of spring have all helped Auckland's flourishing real estate sector.

The Reserve Bank's decision to hold the official cash rate this week delighted agents, who foresee no end to Auckland housing's spring-time fortunes.

Barfoot & Thompson, with nearly 800 agents in 53 offices, sold more than $4 billion of property in the year to August, setting a 79-year record of 12,625 properties.

Demand is such that some agents are finding it hard to keep up.

But when Bayleys agent Geoffrey McRae gets up in the morning, he is grateful he deals in the mansion market and not in the lower price brackets.

"If you were an agent only working the buyers, you would be driven totally nuts right now," Mr McRae said.

Being a list agent on a $600,000 Ponsonby villa - his pick as the single most popular house in Auckland right now - would he his nightmare.

"If you want to survive as an agent long-term, you have to control the deals and you're half-way there to having a sane life," said Mr McRae, who has sold $200 million worth of Auckland houses in 10 years, including brewing magnate Doug Myers' mansion in the winter for $10.8 million.

"The agents who have never been in a market as busy as this before are finding it difficult to cope," he said.

"They get too many phone calls. They find the pressure and stress starts to wear them down and takes a toll on their health."

He says agents should beware of becoming taxi drivers for buyers wanting to be driven from property to property with no promise they will close the deal through that agent. Instead, he advises stressed agents to build a properties database and contact prospective buyers before a property is advertised.